Dome needs more money

Cassie Smit, Beaumont Enterprise

By Cassie Smith

Published 11:36 am, Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Construction at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being built next to Lumberton High School. Workers have begun paying brick around the outside of the dome. WIth $5.5 million raised to complete the structure, officials are searching for another $4 million to complete the project. Project completion is currently scheduled for December.
Photo taken Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Construction at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being...

Construction at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being built next to Lumberton High School. WIth $5.5 million raised to complete the structure, officials are searching for another $4 million to complete the project. Project completion is currently scheduled for December.
Photo taken Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Construction at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being...

Construction at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being built next to Lumberton High School. WIth $5.5 million raised to complete the structure, officials are searching for another $4 million to complete the project. Project completion is currently scheduled for December.
Photo taken Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Construction at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being...

Construction at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being built next to Lumberton High School. WIth $5.5 million raised to complete the structure, officials are searching for another $4 million to complete the project. Project completion is currently scheduled for December.
Photo taken Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Construction at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being...

Construction at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being built next to Lumberton High School. WIth $5.5 million raised to complete the structure, officials are searching for another $4 million to complete the project. Project completion is currently scheduled for December.
Photo taken Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Construction at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being...

Construction at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being built next to Lumberton High School. WIth $5.5 million raised to complete the structure, officials are searching for another $4 million to complete the project. Project completion is currently scheduled for December.
Photo taken Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Construction at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being...

Dario Hernandez cuts a plank Wednesday with a saw at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being built next to Lumberton High School. WIth $5.5 million raised to complete the structure, officials are searching for another $4 million to complete the project. Project completion is currently scheduled for December.
Photo taken Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Dario Hernandez cuts a plank Wednesday with a saw at the Performing...

Dario Hernandez cuts a plank Wednesday with a saw at the Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome being built next to Lumberton High School. WIth $5.5 million raised to complete the structure, officials are searching for another $4 million to complete the project. Project completion is currently scheduled for December.
Photo taken Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Dario Hernandez cuts a plank Wednesday with a saw at the Performing...

Ignacio Romero, left, and Gabrael Montoya work on a section of hose inside the FEMA Dome/Performing Arts Center on Tuesday. The new FEMA Dome/Performing Arts Center is standing on its own Tuesday afternoon. The 26,547-square-foot, disaster-resistant, steel-reinforced concrete dome sits between Lumberton ISD's high school and intermediate school. The Performing Arts Community Center and FEMA Dome is being built by American Business Continuity Domes, Inc. and Daniels Construction will design and finish the interior. The project is projected to be completed in a year.
Photo taken
Jake Daniels/@JakeD_in_SETX
Photo: Jake Daniels

Ignacio Romero, left, and Gabrael Montoya work on a section of hose...

Ignacio Romero, left, and Gabrael Montoya work on a section of hose inside the FEMA Dome/Performing Arts Center on Tuesday. The new FEMA Dome/Performing Arts Center is standing on its own Tuesday afternoon. The 26,547-square-foot, disaster-resistant, steel-reinforced concrete dome sits between Lumberton ISD's high school and intermediate school. The Performing Arts Community Center and FEMA Dome is being built by American Business Continuity Domes, Inc. and Daniels Construction will design and finish the interior. The project is projected to be completed in a year.
Photo taken
Jake Daniels/@JakeD_in_SETX
Photo: Jake Daniels

Ignacio Romero, left, and Gabrael Montoya work on a section of hose...

Lumberton ISD school board officials got their first tour Oct. 10 of the inside of the FEMA disaster dome/Fine Arts Center under construction between the high school and intermediate school.
Photo: Handout

Lumberton ISD school board officials got their first tour Oct. 10 of the inside of the FEMA disaster dome/Fine Arts Center under construction between the high school and intermediate school.
Photo: Handout

Lumberton ISD school board officials got their first tour Oct. 10 of the inside of the FEMA disaster dome/Fine Arts Center under construction between the high school and intermediate school.
Photo: Cassie Smith

Lumberton ISD school board officials got their first tour Oct. 10...

Lumberton city and school officials gathered June 27 for a groundbreaking of the new FEMA Dome. The safe room will have a capacity for 1,133 and double as a Fine Arts Center, with room for a 1,500-seat auditorium, or convention center. The dome is being built between Lumberton High School and Lumberton Intermediate School.
Photo: Cassie Smith

Lumberton city and school officials gathered June 27 for a...

American Business Continuity Domes, Inc. and Dome Technology, the U.S.-based alliance that develops and builds disaster-resistant, steel-reinforced thin-shell concrete domes, will build a new Fine Arts Center for the city and school district in Lumberton.
Photo: Handout

It's unclear where the money will come from - if at all - to finish the $9 million Performing Arts Center and FEMA Dome in Lumberton.

About $4 million is still needed to complete the giant concrete structure off U.S. 69.

The price tag for the safe shelter and multi-purpose event center hasn't increased, partners didn't back out and no one is blaming factors like inflation.

The total funds for the project were never there.

That doesn't dampen Lumberton ISD Superintendent John Valastro's belief, though, that the money will come.

"When people say, 'Why did you start something you can't finish,' well, I can give you three million reasons," Valastro said. "$3 million from a grant is something we weren't going to get again."

Valastro refers to the grant - first presented to the county, then to the city, and finally to the school district - of $3 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Valastro said the grant covered 75 percent of the steel-reinforced, disaster-resistant dome. One of the grant requirements was that the structure also be used for another function - because disasters can be infrequent.

So while the grant covered three quarters of the dome, it only supplements 33 percent of the total project, he said.

Even if the project isn't completed by December, Valastro said, it will take a year at most to acquire the necessary funding and complete the dome, situated between the district's high school and intermediate school. He would not specify where he thinks the money might come from.

The second phase of the project is near completion. The exterior of the building still has to be finished, the added lobby needs to be built, the stage needs to be added, and seating and lighting must be installed. Most of the main structure on the inside of the building is complete.

Valastro said the goal is to have the project finished by December in time to host an end-of-the year performance in the dome.

The City Council on Monday will vote on whether to contribute $400,000 - its first donation - to the project. Valastro said the school district has already allocated more than $2.5 million.

If the funding comes through, that will move the project along for another few months, giving the district some time to find additional funding, he said. There's the possibility of using what may be left over in the district's budget at the end of the fiscal year as well as designating funding in next year's budget, he said. However, all that has to be approved and voted on.

"We are being good stewards of the community's tax dollars," he said. "We've done all this work without passing a bond."

City Manager Steve Clark said he couldn't verify how much the council will consider because the amount could change by Monday night's meeting.

"I think when it's decided it will show we are supporting that program very well," Clark said.

While the city hasn't made any financial contributions to date, it's the reason the dome is here, Clark said.

"Without the city making that available to the school this would have never happened," Clark said. "The school did not get this on its own. The city is the only reason that dome is being built."

For now, progress marches on as construction workers buzz throughout the dome moving the project forward.

James Haggerd, Daniels Construction superintendent, said he expects the construction of the lobby to be built onto the front of the dome to start in a week.

Much of the interior construction has been finished, with space allocated for restrooms, meeting space, a concession stand, and an audio and visual booth. The second-floor balcony awaits the arrival of its seating. A 4,000-square-foot stage is planned, Haggerd said.